An hour after he left, Mr Kolwicz realised a laptop computer and an iPod had been stolen from his spare room. The theft took place on December 14 and the grandad-of-three had been planning to give the Christmas gifts to a close family friend who often visited him.

After the raid, his health and state of mind deteriorated and he had to spend what is likely to be his last Christmas Day – also his birthday – back in the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Mr Kolwicz's son Nathan said: "A crime is a crime, but for someone to do something like this – I wouldn't wish it on anybody. If he'd burgled a warehouse belonging to a multimillion pound company that's one thing, but to target a vulnerable pensioner with cancer is terrible.

"Dad had not long come home from hospital when it happened. The burglary really knocked him back. He lasted about ten days before he was back at the BRI and after that he didn't want to go back home. He's now in a care home in Winterbourne."

The 31-year-old, of Chipping Sodbury, added: "The burglary made him a nervous wreck and he was ringing me at three or four in the morning, worried."

Madden was identified from a fingerprint that scenes of crimes experts recovered from Mr Kolwicz's front door. As he was known to the police and had previous convictions for raiding people's homes, he was arrested on December 19 and charged with burglary.

In police interview, Madden claimed he had gone to Woodend Walk with a friend who wanted to go to his granddad's flat.

He claimed it was his friend who searched the rooms before handing him a bag containing a computer.

However, by the time the case came to Bristol Crown Court, with no evidence that anyone else had been with Madden that day, he admitted the charge and was sentenced to two years and 146 days in prison by Judge Julian Lambert.

To be fair, it's unlikely that the guy knew his victim was very sick. In his mind, he was simply committing a robbery, rather than deliberately preying on someone terminally ill.
I think this underlines the fact that we rarely know and even more rarely care about the impact of our actions. For instance, whilst I can safely predict that the daytime TV-watching knuckledraggers from Knowle will howl and beat their chests, thinking that I'm making excuses for a criminal, it's harder to predict how more advanced people will react.
I guess that's what makes life interesting! :)

Pin a picture of this sub-life on an outside door and throw darts at it - just over two and a half years prison for this offence goes nowhere to prevent it happening again.
People like Madden laugh at the rest of us because he doesn't have to work to make a living - if only this scum were to come up against a real man and get flattened or if he was caught raiding a crime-boss relative - then we might see some justice.
Our courts and justice system are run by privileged fairies who seek to subjugate further the general public rather than reduce crime by punishment.

Very sorry for Mr. Kolwicz, but I di not agree with his sons comment, "A crime is a crime, but for someone to do something like this – I wouldn't wish it on anybody. If he'd burgled a warehouse belonging to a multimillion pound company that's one thing". He almost implies that is ok to rob an innocent company because they can afford it!!!